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ORIGINAL: BoiJen

Here's the problem with living will and organ donation designation on a DL, if your family is clinging to your hand while your lifeless body is being kept functioning by machines, the family has the override on that. What you have on paper doesn't mean a thing until they decide to go along with it. Where do you get your information, exactly? A living will, if done correctly, is given to your PCP as well as your attorney. Should the family attempt to dispute the will it then becomes a legal issue. The D/C'ing of life support may be delayed, but is far from overridden

Families stuck in these types of situations...man it sucks. I hate it. I hate that we as people developing technology will have to face this more and more. AND...process your loss after you've allowed someone else to live Gee...how nice that you see it as being that easy. Lemme tell you...it is not!!  The person is dead. Their body doesn't mean anything to them now and will do you no good to hang onto to now rotting body parts.News flash...life support does not cause the body parts to "rot". The body organs are recieving oxygen and hydration and can survive a rather long time. While you hang onto rotting body parts someone else is now faced with death that could have had a different result had you decided to grieve more appropriately. YOU have NO RIGHT to say what is or is not appropriate grief!!!!

I know mine is not a popular view. Death sucks. Death sucks for everyone. As a survivor of the individual who died it's your job to make the most of that person's life, and saving someone else is the most amazing way to do it. It is...but it is not your call to make. As i stated earlier, organ donation is highly personal and is not for you to criticize.

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ORIGINAL: sirsholly

you owe no apology to anyone. It is probably the most personal decision any of us can ever make.

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ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

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ORIGINAL: rubberpet

Far be it from me to steer away from a little controversy.  I like to stir the pot a little....
 
Executions:  Not only am I pro-death penalty, I believe that executions should be made public again.  I think that lethal injection shows too much compassion and mercy to those who showed no mercy to their victims.  Bring back hangings, the electric chair, and the gas chamber and let the victim's family flip the switch if they choose to.  I firmly believe that executions should be mandatory and only occur upon convictions of first and second degree murder and sexual assault of a child.

Ah. So you believe in a replacing our justice system with one that is based upon the  principles of tribal vengeance. Got it.

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ORIGINAL: rubberpet
 (Please, no hate mail because of my view.  It is my personal view.  I don't expect a lot of people to share my view and I'm not looking to start a ranting and raving debate about it.)

Make up your mind. You brag about how much you like to stir the pot, but you don't want people to debate you? Then don't stir the pot.

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had you decided to grieve more appropriately.

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ORIGINAL: kittinSol

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ORIGINAL: RainydayNE

so many grey areas. but in general, i side with "pro-life." sure, a fetus may not be able to survive outside the womb on its own, but neither can the "parasite" in a conjoined twin system. the dependant twin is still considered a life form, isn't it?

It's argued in medicine that a fetus is a parasitic life form that depends on the life of the woman to survive. It's tough, but sometimes a human being has to make the decision to terminate a potential life for better survival. It's happened from times immemorial.

Nobody's for abortion; but whether it is legal or not, women will do it when they need to, and only they can decide whether it's the best thing for them or not. Nobody else has the right to decide whether it's morally wrong or not; like 'pulling the plug', it's one of the most personal decision a woman will ever have to make. Her reasons are her own. Life is never perfect...

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ORIGINAL: rulemylife

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ORIGINAL: sirsholly

you owe no apology to anyone. It is probably the most personal decision any of us can ever make.

Well trust me, I'm not trying to start an argument here, but why do you think that?

When I'm dead I'm dead, if someone can make use of my organs is that not better than letting them go to waste?

I'm sure not going to be using them anymore.

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ORIGINAL: BoiJen

Here's the problem with living will and organ donation designation on a DL, if your family is clinging to your hand while your lifeless body is being kept functioning by machines, the family has the override on that.

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ORIGINAL: sirsholly

Lemme ask you...what is "appropriate grief"? Something you read about? Something you plan on doing when the time comes?

No one makes a decision of how they will grieve, and it sickens me that you are so ready to criticize anyone who has lost a loved one. It SICKENS ME.

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Grieve appropriately...stop holding onto to a dead body. seek support and understanding from the people you love and your general support circle. If that's lacking, find professional help. I'm sure many hospitals can recommend a good grief counselor.

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They wouldn't do that.  If they did, they would be in big trouble.  You and the other member are being excessively paranoid.

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Surgeon Accused of Speeding a Death to Get Organs

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — On a winter night in 2006, a disabled and brain damaged man named Ruben Navarro was wheeled into an operating room at a hospital here. By most accounts, Mr. Navarro, 25, was near death, and doctors hoped that he might sustain other lives by donating his kidneys and liver.

But what happened to Mr. Navarro quickly went from the potentially life-saving to what law enforcement officials say was criminal. In what transplant experts believe is the first such case in the country, prosecutors have charged the surgeon, Dr. Hootan C. Roozrokh, with prescribing excessive and improper doses of drugs, apparently in an attempt to hasten Mr. Navarro’s death to retrieve his organs sooner.

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By Rob SteinWashington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 18, 2007; Page A03



The number of kidneys, livers and other body parts surgeons are harvesting through a controversial approach to organ donation has started to rise rapidly, a trend that is saving the lives of more waiting patients but, some say, risks sacrificing the interests of the donors.   

Under the procedure, surgeons are removing organs within minutes after the heart stops beating and doctors declare a patient dead. Since the 1970s, most organs have been removed only after doctors declared a patient brain dead.
Federal health officials, transplant surgeons and organ banks are promoting the alternative as a way to meet the increasing demand for organs and to give more dying patients and their families the solace of helping others.

Some doctors and bioethicists, however, say the practice raises the disturbing specter of transplant surgeons preying on dying patients for their organs, possibly pressuring doctors and families to discontinue treatment, adversely affecting donors' care in their final days and even hastening their deaths.